The early morning workouts challenged Nik Stauskas’ resolve, if only momentarily.

The idea of crawling out from under the covers and heading to “Camp Sanderson” for intense hour-long offseason sessions with Jon Sanderson, Michigan’s strength and conditioning coach, and teammate Caris LeVert wasn’t exactly appealing when his whole body ached and he would have rather stayed in bed at least a few more minutes.

In those bleary-eyed moments, Stauskas always returned to the darkest hour of his college basketball career and found ample motivation. As a freshman, Stauskas’ uncanny accuracy from 3-point range had helped lift Michigan into the Final Four—he went 6-for-6 beyond the arc and scored 22 points in the Wolverines’ Elite Eight win against Florida—but his performance in Atlanta was pretty much a disaster from a personal standpoint.

In two games at the Georgia Dome, Stauskas made just one shot, and the reality of that disappointing showing hit home after Michigan’s championship game loss to Louisville. Slumped in front of his locker during the media postgame scrum, the freshman made a promise, to himself and to the Michigan fans he knew would read his comments.

He vowed to become a better Nik Stauskas.

“I didn’t have an idea of what it was going to look like, but I definitely knew I was going to work my ass off in the summer,” Stauskas told Sporting News this week. “I wasn’t going to be the same player we knew. In my mind, I wasn’t going to be the same player, and in my body, I wasn’t going to be the same player.”

Stauskas and LeVert stayed on campus this spring, and they met with Sanderson four or five times a week. The high-intensity sessions included upper-body circuits, squats and several different Olympic lifts, and the pace of the workouts, the go-go-go philosophy espoused by Sanderson, always left Stauskas and LeVert exhausted.

The workouts worked . Stauskas played his freshman year around 192 pounds; he’s 205 now, with welcome extra muscle on his 6-foot-6 frame. Same for LeVert, who added more than 20 pounds entering his sophomore season.

With brilliant point guard Trey Burke and star off-guard Tim Hardaway, Jr., leading the Michigan offense last year—both left early for the NBA draft (Burke went ninth overall, Hardaway 24th)—Stauskas was essentially a spot-up shooter, which was the ideal confluence of his greatest strength and the team’s greatest need. He averaged 11.0 points in that role and scored at least 15 points 10 times.

The problem was, when his shots weren’t falling from the outside—which didn’t happen often, to be sure—he didn’t offer much else. He wasn’t strong enough to be a consistent defensive presence, and his part in coach John Beilein’s offense was very specific.

In that national semifinal against Syracuse, he went 0-for-4 from 3-point range in the first half and lost minutes to LeVert, the superior defender. In the title game, he lost minutes to Spike Albrecht, the deep reserve who came out of nowhere to score 17 first-half points (seriously, Albrecht had scored a total of 22 points in Michigan’s 18 Big Ten regular-season contests). Stauskas’ entire second-half contribution that night consisted of six minutes, one personal foul and one turnover. In the two games, he totaled 37 minutes, three points (on 1-for-7 shooting), three rebounds, two assists, two steals and three fouls.

“I was very frustrated. It definitely motivated me, because the whole year, I had been playing pretty significant minutes,” Stauskas said. “Those final two games of the Final Four, it was maybe 18 or 19 minutes that I played. It definitely motivated me a lot. I had a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of the summer because of the way the season ended for me personally. It definitely motivated me.”

If you’re counting, that was three “definitely motivated me” mentions in about seven seconds of talking. So, yes, the failure still drives him. Stauskas no longer has one dimension; he has dimensions, plural. Through eight games this season—he sat out against Coppin State with a sprained ankle—Stauskas is leading Michigan with 18.9 points (he’s scored at least 20 points six times) and 3.3 assists, and he’s making more of an impact on defense.

Stauskas’ improvement has been evident in advanced metrics, too. Looking at his page on kenpom.com, his offensive rating is way up (133.5 from 122.8), as is his effective field-goal percentage (65.9 from 59.7), his percentage of offensive possessions (22.8 percent from 16.2 percent) and his rate of fouls drawn per 40 minutes (6.0 from 2.7). And despite the fact that the basketball is in his hands more, his turnover rate has fallen (12.7 from 14.2).

Of his 298 shot attempts last year, 61.1 percent came from beyond the 3-point arc, where he shot 44.0 percent. At first glance, his raw numbers aren’t much different—48 of 82 shot attempts (58.5 percent) have been from 3-point range (he’s made 24 of those 48). But look a little deeper, and his new, more aggressive philosophy becomes evident.

Last year, Stauskas shot just 87 free throws in 39 games (2.23 per game); he’s already at 57 through eight games (7.13 per game). As a point of reference, Burke averaged 4.26 free throw attempts last year. Stauskas is a career 81.3 percent shooter from the charity stripe, which makes his ability to get to the line a real asset for Michigan.

“That’s just being confident in my body, taking contact better around the key,” Stauskas said. “Those are all the things coach Sanderson had in mind when we were doing our stuff in the weight room. To see my free-throw attempts go up like that is definitely great to see.”

The moment that best illustrates this attacking approach came in the semifinal of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. With his Wolverines trailing Florida State by two points in the waning seconds, Stauskas received a pass well beyond the 3-point arc and never hesitated. He charged the basket and scored easily, tying the game with 6.2 seconds left. He then poured in seven of Michigan’s 13 points in overtime—he had 23 of his game-high 26 after halftime—as the Wolverines pulled out the victory.

Opposing coaches have noticed his newfound versatility and are preparing accordingly. After Michigan’s game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on December 3, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said they planned for Stauskas as “the best 2-guard we would face so far this season.” That’s high praise, but that contest was evidence that he’s still a work in progress.

Stauskas was the focus of Duke’s defensive game plan. Tyler Thornton, who has earned his reputation as one of the nation’s premier defensive guards, did everything he could to deny Stauskas the ball, regardless where he was on the court. Then, if he did receive a pass, Duke often quickly doubled him, even out well beyond the arc.

Stauskas played 34 minutes and attempted just two shots and six free throws. Michigan trailed by 10 at halftime and never got closer than six points in the second half.

“The Duke game was definitely a learning experience for me,” he said. “I’ve just got to do a better job of finding ways to get open, getting into my man and making good cuts and trusting our offense. Those are all things I’m going to need to improve on, because down the road, those are going to be things I’m going to possibly see again.”

Stauskas isn’t the only Michigan player making adjustments. Life without Burke running the point has been difficult. Derrick Walton Jr. has been good, but he’s a top-40 freshman tasked with replacing a top-10 draft pick on a preseason top-10 team. That will take time. The Wolverines have already lost three games away from home (at Iowa State, vs. Charlotte in Puerto Rico and at Duke) and have fallen out of the rankings.

But make no mistake, Michigan still has plenty of talent. Forwards Mitch McGary and Glenn Robinson III have struggled without Burke’s knack for finding openings in the defense, but they’re still future first-round picks. Zak Irvin is a five-star recruit. LeVert scored 24 points in that game at Duke and should have a larger role in the offense going forward. Stauskas has joined All-America conversations.

It’s just a matter of figuring out how to best use the talent on the roster, and Michigan fans should be confident that Beilein—who is well-respect in the coaching fraternity as an offensive mind—will eventual find the right combinations.

Up next for Stauskas and company is yet another difficult test.

Top-ranked Arizona visits the Crisler Center on Saturday for a noon ET showdown. The Wildcats started the season ranked No. 6 in the preseason, one spot ahead of Michigan. From there, though, their paths have diverged. Coach Sean Miller’s group is a more experienced squad, and Arizona’s undefeated start to the schedule includes a six-point win against Duke on a neutral court at Madison Square Garden a few weeks ago.

“They’re definitely going to pose a great challenge for us,” Stauskas said, “but I think we’re going to develop a real good game plan and I think we’re going to be ready.”